SMU's $5 Mil Closer to Having Sophomores Live on Campus So They Will 'Learn' Together

purple

Sounds like SMU is copying TCU. TCU decided at least a year ago to mandate sophomores living on campus.

LakeWWWooder

SMU is really up and coming by all measures. A dozen of us from Woodrow in my class attended and I would say that most of us are happy about our experiences on The Hilltop.

I'm also a proud Dallasite so I am pleased with the progress of SMU. You naysayers come off as rather petty, misinformed and a bit jealous.

Mr Awesome

Awesome, An awesome dorm to have an awesome time. Drink awesome shooters, listen toawesome music, and then just sit around and soak up each othersawesomeness.

LaceyB

The best thing Tina Fey has written since...God knows when. I not only liked this comment, I LOVED it!! Go MA!

Coleman

oh they'll be soaking something up, alright.

Kwhuie

SMU is rapidly making itself into a truly elite private institution. The capital improvements to the campus in the past 10 years are staggering. Great time to be on The Hilltop.

Bigjondaniel

In the great Dallas tradition, building Shit - ELITE!

Bigjondaniel

In the great tradition of Dallas development, Building Shit = ELITE! I believe SMU should have an endowed chair in "Boosterism". The question is, who would be the professor?

Anonymous

SMU looked at "truly elite" colleges and noticed that they all had high tuition. So SMU raised its tuition to make people think "surely if people are paying that much for school, it MUST be great".

Cowtown

Wonder if they will let the campus-area drug dealers in there so they can get the full SMU experience...

Kwhuie

Yeah dick.. Drugs aren't a problem on every college campus or anything. Sorry you didn't get in.

Anonymous

SMU has something like a 95% acceptance rate. Its acceptance rate if you can actually pay for it is 10%. Its drug problem is worse than average. What was your point?

LakeWWWooder

SMU had almost 14,000 applications for the 1,400 freshmen slots this fall.

Jason

Ok, Mr. Obvious, SMU is not Rice. Is that what you're trying to say? A hush falls over the metroplex. Shall we go further? SMU is not Stanford, Harvard or Yale. You could have used some schooling when making your argument. What a waste of time replying to you.

Anonymous

I do not consider A&M, UT, or TCU to be good schools. Their acceptance rate doesn't matter to me. Don't confuse the fact that there are inevitably some smart people at bad schools to mean that the schools themselves are good. And yes, I'm a snob, so we will never come to agreement about what constitutes a "good" school. Rice counts. Nothing else in Texas does, in my opinion.

Jason

Anonymous, you have a never ending supply unsubstantiated opinions. Let's look at acceptance rates in Texas: A&M - 66.6%, TCU - 59.3%, and UT - 45.3%. I don't see how SMU is so easy to get into in comparison to other Texas universities. You're anecdotal experience isn't so convincing.

As far as drugs are concerned, I've spent time at some great colleges, and I've seen a lot of drugs being done by rich and poor students alike. I'm not even saying there's not a problem at SMU; I just think you saying there's a problem is a far cry from there actually being a problem.

Anonymous

53.5% still means they accept more than they reject - that does not make it "objectively tough". I stand by the near 100% acceptance rate if you can pay. The overall acceptance rate was 95% when I applied there not so long ago and luckily had the good sense to turn down a full scholarship (and entrance into their honors program) to go somewhere better. I can't "prove" that drug use is worse there than anywhere else, but most alums I know and work with willingly admit how rampant the problem is because of how much money the students there have.The one thing I'm willing to give them credit for is scenery. The campus looks ok, but I'm talking about the women. At least the smoking and coke keep them thin and nice to look at!

Jason

Hey Mr. Unsubstantiated Stats, SMU's acceptance rate is 53.5%. Objectively speaking, that's pretty tough. Kwhuie is right. Drugs are on every campus, and I'd like you to prove why they're worse at SMU with something more than your opinion.

And, LaceyB, I'm glad you and the other adults are providing a great atmosphere to the minors. It sure does sound like they're bringing the shithole you're proud of down. You definitely need to get them out. I'm sure you're beautiful face and positive attitude will make it hard for them to leave.

scottindallas

This is where the money is. They can soak the parents that have the cash to dish out for the secluded collegiate experience. SMU offers a great one. The busses they employ for parties is smart and this is another way to keep drunk students off the streets and out of the drug culture that apartments would seem to allow. The college can charge a pretty penny for these dorms and will not doubt be very well appointed. The campus is incredible with various activities and centers to offer the students. Another interesting aspect to this, it allows the college to charge a more competitive tuition while offsetting those rates. Another savvy move by SMU.

LaceyB

Thank God! Thank Allah! Thank every deity, and SMU president, past, now, and future! These petty bitches clog up my building and try to act like it's a collegiate dorm. We have a supercrazy resident (not me--don't even think it), who yells at the top of her lungs, and is a crazy drunk, and her cigarette smoke from her apt with the broken door gets into the hallway and just causes a foul disturbance.I'm walking down the hall, and these two little SMUs go, "We are ALL trying to complain to have that girl in XX08 kicked off our floor. She's so crazy!"I nodded, then thought, "If she's paying her rent on time, the company won't give a shit. Just another resident--annoys others--but not removable conditions, and they don't want to lose $1400/mo." Besides, it's kinda nice to have a soap opera on my floor that I'm not a part of. Our whole floor can't help but listen, even the guys.

Back to school, young SMU bitches with your "Vote her off this floor!" BS. And, shame on the apartment rental company for having students in a professional apartment where their parents sign off. It's bar street. They aren't even old enough. Morons. Back to the dorms with ya!

Honeybee

Yeah, except those crummy dorms have ZERO closet space, you have to share a bathroom, and who knows who used that washing machine before you?

Plus, you can't smoke yourself thin and come and go off-camera at all hours. Pesky security measures.

As an SMU grad whose not-affluent-at-all horizons were definitely broadened by what I learned from the girls on my dorm floor*, I'm pretty sure that unless there are walk-in closets or free shuttles to and from Northpark or something, the residency requirement will not be seen as a privilege.

*Life lessons I learned:-Colored socks. Never allowed. -Panty lines. Cheap. Don't let it happen. Embrace the thong.-Your nails really matter. Unpolished is OK, undone is not.

LaceyB

The owning business is called CWS. Seeing as how you live by those tenets, you should fit in nicely with the other 19 year olds. In fact, tell the whole dorm of freshmen to move in as soon as they can move out. It's only about $17K/yr for 700 sq. ft. (much of it closet space). Mommy and Daddy will have no problem with that, I'm sure. Cheap. If you "embrace the thong" some bartenders will let you drink underage (off camera).Then you can get all of us voted off our floors for acting like adults, and not insufferable idiots. It'll be a big popularity contest, instead of a business, just like high school, oops, college. Watch. That. Happen.GO DO YOUR NAILS, amateur!!

LaceyB

Comment on Unfair Park issues, rather than me all the time. I don't give two shits about other people's sarcasm--or non-sarcasm--I did once, but then realized that life is way too short to care.

warden62

It's interesting to see your process of being sarcastic, yet unable to ever pick up on others' sarcasm.

Honeybee

Ummm, Lacey?My first 2 paragraphs were a paraphrase of what I heard from other girls upon my arrival at SMU as to why the dorms sucked and why renting an apartment was priority 1.Not exactly tenets I personally lived by as a scholarship student.

Those 2 paragraphs paraphrase the reasons I don't believe the sophomore residency requirement is going to be a big hit at a school like SMU, where many students are used to having things a certain way. That way being the high-end way.

And I was being facetious about the "life lessons" I acquired at SMU. Well, sort of.I am a grown woman with children of my own, but I still regret the state of my nails most days. And I check myself for panty lines.